In addition to certain guarantees provided by law, LegalZoom guarantees your satisfaction with our services and support. Because our company was created by experienced attorneys, we strive to be the best legal document service on the web. If you are not satisfied with our services, please contact us immediately and we will correct the situation, provide a refund or offer credit that can be used for future LegalZoom orders.

LegalZoom Satisfaction Guarantee Details:

If you're not satisfied, simply call us toll-free at (800) 773-0888 during our normal business hours. All requests made under this guarantee must be made within 60 days of purchase. We will process your request within 5 business days after we've received all of the documents and materials sent to you. Unfortunately, we can't refund or credit any money paid to government entities, such as filing fees or taxes, or to other third parties with a role in processing your order. We also cannot refund any money paid by you directly to third parties, such as payments made by you directly to attorneys affiliated with our legal plans or attorney-assisted products.

If you want to exchange the product you ordered for a different one, you must request this exchange and complete your replacement order within 60 days of purchase. The purchase price of the original item, less any money paid to government entities, such as filing fees or taxes, or to other third parties with a role in processing your order, will be credited to your LegalZoom account. Any payments made directly by you to attorneys affiliated with our legal plans or attorney-assisted products are not eligible for exchange or credit. Any price difference between the original order and the replacement order or, if a replacement order is not completed within 60 days of purchase, the full original purchase price (in each case less any money paid to government entities or other third parties) will be credited to the original form of payment. If you paid for your original order by check, LegalZoom will mail a check for the applicable amount to your billing address.

Please note that we cannot guarantee the results or outcome of your particular procedure. For instance, the government may reject a trademark application for legal reasons beyond the scope of LegalZoom's service. In some cases, a government backlog can lead to long delays before your process is complete. Similarly, LegalZoom does not guarantee the results or outcomes of the services rendered by our legal plan attorneys or attorney-assisted products. Problems like these are beyond our control and are not covered by this guarantee.

Since we're dedicating time and effort to your legal document preparation, our guarantee only covers satisfaction issues caused by LegalZoom - not changes to your situation or your state of mind.

Privacy and Technology: Is Technology Doing Away with Our Privacy?

Privacy and Technology: Is Technology Doing Away with Our Privacy?

When news came out that Apple iPhones were tracking our whereabouts, people were outraged. Once the dust settled, some of that outrage turned out to be misplaced; Apple said that data is collected anonymously. Nonetheless, the news has reignited the debate over technology and privacy, and has forced us to examine where our personal boundaries lie.

How Location Services Work

To be able to give you directions or what's around you, Apple has a database of WiFi networks that it uses to triangulate your location. So if your Apple device connects with three hotspots in your location, Apple narrows your immediate location to the nearest IP address.

Devices like the iPhone track your whereabouts via location-based services and then keep that data in an unsecure file format on your device. If you sync your device to any computer, then that computer has your data, which can also be accessed. If you lose your device, anyone who finds it can see where you've been in the last year, from the time the operating system with this capability was released. Where you are, and where you've been, are laid bare to anyone with access to your device.

Location-Based Services are a Huge Convenience

Sounds terrible, doesn't it? Look at the situation from another view, though is: people want the location services their devices provide. According to Apple, the company was simply responding to increasing consumer demand for location services like directions, locating friends, or finding restaurants. After all, who hasn't been lost, hungry or almost out of gas? Cell phones with location capability can literally save your life in situations like these.

Location-Based Services Aren't the Only Ways You Are Tracked

Even though some of your information, albeit anonymous, might be tracked without your knowledge, the vast majority of people knowingly broadcast at least some personal imformation—by creating a social media profile or making an online purchase, as just two examples. Every time you log in to surf the net, you are tracked in one form or another. Here are a few examples:

Internet service providers (ISPs). Services such as AT&T/Yahoo, Comcast or EarthLink, can match your personal details with your unique internet address. Some ISPs have been known to monitor your online activity to target you for certain advertisements

Operating systems. Your own computer logs data of your Internet use. If your machine is exposed to a third party—legitimately or not—that party can learn the websites you frequent, the time of day you are likey to read emails, and with which banks you hold accounts

And some people don't care at all about privacy, broadcasting their whereabouts openly and constantly via Facebook or Foursquare.

US Laws to Protect Personal Information Cannot Keep Pace with Advances in Technology

The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was enacted in 1986 to protect individual privacy. New technology quickly put it to the test. Though the law makes it unlawful for an Internet service provider to reveal information contained in electronic communications, the privacy of such communications is negated either if a user consents or if the government submits a valid subpoena to the ISP. If, for example, information is sought under the 2001 PATRIOT Act, restrictions on government information-gathering are even less stringent than usual.

If you are concerned about protecting your privacy, you can take steps to limit the kind and amount of electronic information compiled about you.

For mobile devices, you can turn off location services in the settings menu. You can also encrypt backups of your data when you sync your device to your computer. Also, it's a good idea to use a password to lock your device in case it's ever lost or stolen.

For computers, you can regularly clear your cache to erase your browsing history. You can also deactivate cookies, which send information to and from your machine to an origin browser. However, expect to see a reduction in convenience in exchange for these protections: without a memory of prior searches, activities and preferences, your device and computer will take longer to deliver search results and will be less tailored to your individual preferences. This means that if you spend ten minutes searching for a website, then clear your cache, you may need to repeat your search the next time you want that site.

As technology provides us with more and more conveniences, the way we think of privacy will necessarily change. As technology improves and our desire for convenience grows accordingly, what we think of now as “privacy” may become a relic. And we might not even care.

Disclaimer: Communications between you and LegalZoom are protected by our Privacy Policy but not by the attorney-client privilege or as work product. LegalZoom provides access to independent attorneys and self-help services at your specific direction. We are not a law firm or a substitute for an attorney or law firm. We cannot provide any kind of advice, explanation, opinion, or recommendation about possible legal rights, remedies, defenses, options, selection of forms or strategies. Your access to the website is subject to our Terms of Use.

LegalZoom gladly provides services to citizens of the EU wishing to start a business or protect their intellectual property in the United States. Additional costs may apply.